Meadowcreek Parkway: One word or two?

The parkway that's long been on the books is known as Meadowcreek– one word, not two. And no one seems to know why.

Will Rieley, the landscape architect Charlottesville hired to advise the city on its portion of the parkway, says he usually spells Meadowcreek as two words. "I've wondered where it got put together," he says. "It sounds like a subdivision."

The Virginia Department of Transportation has used "Meadow Creek" in press releases. However, "It's the locality that's responsible for naming the roads and for the way they will be spelled," says VDOT spokesperson Donna Purcell Mayes.

"The traditional spelling is one word," says Charlottesville communications director Maurice Jones. "I have no idea what the history is behind it. All the research I've done shows it as one word."

Howard Newlon, former director of research at the Virginia Transportation Research Council, points out that Meadow Creek and Meadow Brook have been used interchangeably for a long time, and that the latter is one word, as in Meadowbrook Hardware.

Former Charlottesville parks and rec director Gene German can't explain why the parkway Meadowcreek is spelled as one word, but he knows how the golf course Meadowcreek came to be one word.

When the nine-hole Pen Park reopened as an 18-hole course in 1992, "we made the decision to condense it to one word for clarity," recalls German. "We'd tossed around names and made it Meadowcreek, and I said, 'one word or two?' Cole Hendrix, the city manager, said 'one.' It was as simple as that."